When customers send a check, these payments must be deposited into a bank so that the check payee can use the money. Lockbox services allow organizations to streamline receipt and processing of mailed items; especially checks.
There are a variety of lockbox services available: wholesale lockboxes, retail lockboxes and other, custom-designed lockbox programs.
The primary advantage of lockbox services is speed and efficiency of mail processing. Lockbox services get money into a bank account faster than an entity can typically do it by itself. For example, certain lockboxes may be located in places where the mail is delivered several times per day whereas an entity may only receive mail once each day. Thus, lockboxes offer more opportunities to capture payments and make deposits to an entity's account.
Most importantly, a lockbox reduces the amount of time it takes for money to be transferred to the entity's accounts. Accordingly, the entity has less outstanding “float” money—i.e., customer payments get deposited and become available for use as quickly as possible.
Currently, employees of certain lockbox services manually take physical copies of check images and attach the copies to printed back-up information required for the processing of the check images.
During this process the employees have to use an artificially created audit trail to match and compare which electronic check images should be attached to the appropriate back-up physical document. Then, the employees print the check images, bundle the check images with the physical back-up, and either mail through first-class US Mail or U.S. Express Mail to the appropriate location.
It would be desirable to provide systems and methods for improving the processing of check images by lock box services.